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Forza Horizon 4 Gameplay: Five Key Takeaways from E3 2018

Updated: 16 Jul 2018 2:05 pm

It doesn't get any prettier than this.

BY: Dave Sanyal

Buckle up, it's time to race like never before.

Microsoft had a strong E3 showing this year with a multitude of games, and even announced that a new console was in production. The tech giant has also announced the aquirement of five new internal game studios, leaving Xbox players hopeful and eager for some awesome Xbox exclusives in the future. But Microsoft also had some existing exclusives to entertain players in the meanwhile, revealing the fourth iteration of the Forza Horizon. For those of you who don’t know, Forza Horizon is a Xbox exclusive video game made by Playground Games. The game is based on racing cars in an open world. There are plenty of things to do around the world, other than simply driving around in your favorite Lamborghini or Mclaren. Speaking of Mclarens, Forza Horizon games always include hundreds of real cars, ranging from antiques to sedans to supercars to rally cars. Each car is different and unique, and you won’t get bored of driving for a while. Every new Forza game also includes the newest, coolest, and most powerful sports cars, as well as a brand new location, like Australia, Europe, or the US. But what makes Forza Horizon 4 stand out from its predecessors? Here are 5 key takeaways from this year’s E3 showing.

1. New Location

Four years ago, Forza Horizon 2 debuted with its location set in Europe. Well it’s not very realistic to drive around an entire continent, so Forza’s map of Europe was shrunk down and cut down to just parts of France and Italy, cutting out Britain. This year, however, Great Britain will finally get to be in the game. Players will be able to drive through the countryside and the grand city of London. How awesome! Forza Horizon has always been about vacation spots like the Rocky Mountains, the Mediterranean Coast, and Australia. These places are often colorful or adventurous and draw in players. But it looks like Britain’s landscape will be a royal flavor of appealing.

2. New Seasons and Weather Mechanic

Forza Horizon 4 will be the first race car game ever to have dynamically changing landscapes in the form of seasons. Britain will look extra pretty in the fall and spring, and icy cold in the winter. Seasons won’t just be for show however. The new mechanic will physically change the map itself. At E3, Playground Games demonstrated how the winter cold can freeze over entire bodies of water and make new locations, such as islands, accessible by driving over ice. That doesn’t sound very safe but it sure sounds heckin fun! In addition, spring will bring new offer off - road race events. As of now, we don’t know if there will be other perks with the other seasons. But it’s good to know that in the in-game experience will be ever changing.

3. New Online Features

Forza Horizon 4’s world is a shared open community. This means that when playing, you will be in the same world as everyone else. Seasons will be the same for everyone in that world, so that everyone has the same experience. In the older Forza Horizon games, the open world was always full of AI drivers, and multiplayer was only accessible through joining a multiplayer server. It worked well. But Forza Horizon 4 will do it better. When you go out for a drive in the open world, you will meet real people - and we all know real people make video games ten times more fun. Real people will add variety and spontaneity to the game itself. And yes, this game can still be played offline if you prefer it that way.

4. The Best graphics yet

Forza Horizon 4 is being built with absolute beauty in mind. Forza Horizon 4 will be playable in hyper realistic 4k and 60fps. 60fps is a new option coming to Horizon 4 on the Xbox One X and PC. In addition, seasons will add an extra layer of immersion into gameplay.

5. The Newest Cars

The newest Forza Horizon game will bring something long requested by the fans: motorcycles. You can’t ride them yet, but at least you can drive next to them! Yeah, admittedly, it's sort of a let down, but Forza Horizon 4 will have a ton of crazy off road beasts to make up for it. On top of that, Forza Horizon 4 will make available the newest supercars, including the brand new Mclaren Senna, currently the most extreme supercar in the world. Microsoft’s demo with the Senna at E3 is sure to draw in a ton of car fans and non car fans alike. And it doesn’t, maybe one of Forza Horizon 4’s 500 other cars will do the trick.

Forza Horizon 4 is coming to stores and to the Xbox Games Pass on October 2

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